*TUT* How to run new wires into the doors of newer cars *that have this connector*

[RooTxBeeR]

So I had to run new wires in my car, finally. I never ran new door wires before so it was a great learning process. I first thought, just go buy some grommets and make my own spots. Well when I sat down to actually look at how possible that would be, wasn't really without removing the door. I was doing a lot of it on my own, so having to remove a door would not be easy. Then to top it off, I never did remove one so I passed on that. I asked my neighbor who is a mechanic for some advice on how to utilize the stock grommets and run new wires. Well he gave me some damn good advice and I used it. Used all stock locations and grommets and it worked great. Here are some pics and info on how to do so. I have no idea what of all cars utilize these connectors but if you have one with connectors like this. This same method should work.

So to start off, I have a 2004 Ford Escape XLT for those wondering.

Here is the stock grommet. To remove it, peel back the rubber casing on it, and you will see at the top there are 2 pins that lock it in. You should use a 90 degree dental pick to hit them and it will pop right out. There was a total of 4 on mine, 2 on top, 2 on the bottom.

Annnnnnd walla. Now it's out. When I remove it, I disconnected the grommet on both the top and bottom so I can pull it out as far as possible to make it easier to work on.

Then once it's pulled out of the hole and it's loose enough, pull it out as far as possible. The green bit on top of the white connector, is the locking mechanism.

You pull it up, or out. Once it's as far as it will go, you can then separate the two pieces.

So you are left with the connectors hanging out. So what I did was. I took a drill bit, just a tad bit bigger than the speaker wire I was using. In the picture, at the top right you can see a yellow wire to the farthest right. There is an empty slot above it. Take your drill, and drill through it. To make it work better, I drilled through both sides of each connector to make sure there was no shaven plastic still there that the wire could get snagged on when feeding it through. I put a passive component set in my front doors. So this connector I had to drill 4 holes through, 2 for the woofer and 2 for the tweeter.

So once the holes where made, go ahead and reconnect the 2 connectors back together. Then feed your wires through. This was the longest process for this whole thing. On some of the spots, I would have to redrill because some shaven plastic was still in the way and made pushing a wire through difficult. Once you have all the wires ran through the connector, pull them all the way through so you have the whole length needed to reach the speaker location inside the door. Once that is done. I took a shrink wrap, and shrunk it around the end of the wires combined together. Pushed that through the stock grommet. So when it came through, all the wires went through. Instead of feeding each one by itself. That was a lot easier than doing all the drilling and feeding through the connectors. Once they are fed through the grommet, pull the wires to be taught around the connector and in the grommet so nothing has a chance of getting pinched down the line. If you have never taken one of these grommets off before, here is how to get them back on without an issue. At this point, your 2 connectors should be together and wires in the doors. Go ahead and stick the bottom grommet back into the door and make sure it sets in and won't move easily. Once that is done, take the top connector that you removed out of the body. Take the top part of the grommet, and wrap it around the connector. Once the grommet is fully around the wire housing and is set and snug to it like the 2nd picture I posted. Go ahead and slide it back into the body. You will hear a couple of snaps, and BAMMMM. Will look just like it did before it all started, just like the first image.

Then you connect the speaker wires to your speakers, mount the speakers and you will have sound. I felt like making this tutorial because when I looked up how to run new wires, couldn't find the best of info, and my original thought of putting my own grommets in turned out to be WAY harder than I originally thought it would be.

[reedal]

I am so glad I haven't had to own a vehicle with those connectors for the door electronics. But when I do one day, I'll keep this in mind. Thank you root beer!

[RooTxBeeR]

I am so glad I haven't had to own a vehicle with those connectors for the door electronics. But when I do one day, I'll keep this in mind. Thank you root beer!

This is the first time I ever had to do something like this so my other vehicles, no idea how they worked. I sound deadened all 4 of my doors to about 80% coverage, and did this wiring on all 4 of my doors. Did it all alone, took around 6 hours. I would say, washing the insides of the doors and putting up deadening took the vast majority. Isn't that hard believe it or not.

[jcarter1885]

Nice write up but where is the picture of the molex with the holes drilled? For us visual learners in case I missed it

[RooTxBeeR]

Nice write up but where is the picture of the molex with the holes drilled? For us visual learners in case I missed it

No, I just never took them. I had to do all 4 doors, and deaden all 4 doors so it was a lengthy process. Wanted to get it done lol. There really isn't much to see, there is already a hole, just not big enough for a wire to go through, so you just enlarge it, then stick the wire through, once it's through, pull the rest through the hole.

[Efreakingt]

I'm about to install mids in my front doors on my 2004 aviator, after seeing this I was like ugh...

I was planning on mounting the passive inside the door panel so I'm wondering if I'd just be better off running a new hole thru the door and running it along the boot.

[3vil]

In my experience it's easier to drill and run through the existing door harness than to try and add an additional set of holes, one for the door plus one on the body side. You can also look into picking up additional molex terminals, then everything is still plug and play between the door and body, assuming the factory harness has enough unused pins.

[RooTxBeeR]

I'm about to install mids in my front doors on my 2004 aviator, after seeing this I was like ugh...

I was planning on mounting the passive inside the door panel so I'm wondering if I'd just be better off running a new hole thru the door and running it along the boot.

I had the same thought, then I was thinking, I don't want to have the chance, of having to redo it all again. Because the passive crossover is bounding and rattling away inside the door. Don't get me wrong, with enough though and effort, there more than likely is a way to mount a passive crossover so it won't do that. I was limited on time and am happy with what I did. I just did 4 holes for the front doors for 2 sets of wires.

[tyma1026]

Thank you sir. I will be putting this info to use today.

[Efreakingt]

I'm about to install mids in my front doors on my 2004 aviator, after seeing this I was like ugh...

I was planning on mounting the passive inside the door panel so I'm wondering if I'd just be better off running a new hole thru the door and running it along the boot.

I had the same thought, then I was thinking, I don't want to have the chance, of having to redo it all again. Because the passive crossover is bounding and rattling away inside the door. Don't get me wrong, with enough though and effort, there more than likely is a way to mount a passive crossover so it won't do that. I was limited on time and am happy with what I did. I just did 4 holes for the front doors for 2 sets of wires.

I'll be cracking open my doors in a few weeks to get a better look. I've got some ideas but I'll have to see it first before I decide. I'm trying to keep everything as clean and hidden as possible.